mission or embassy seems to have been as follows: A
prodigious alarm was excited in Europe, by the victorious and destructive
progress of the Mongals or Tartars; who, under the command of Tuschi-khan,
and of Batu-khan, the son of Tuschi, advancing through Kipzhak, Russia,
Poland, and Hungary, all of which they had most horribly ravaged and laid
waste, had penetrated even into Silesia; while by the eastern side or the
Caspian, penetrating through Transoxiana and Persia, under the command of
Zagatai-khan, likewise a son of Zingus, and Holagu-khan, a nephew of
Zagatai, they had made their appearance on the banks of the Euphrates and
Tigris. In this alarming conjuncture, it was thought advisable by Pope
Innocent IV. in a convocation of the clergy at Lyons, in 1245, to send
ambassadors to these formidable conquerors, to endeavour to pacify them,
and induce them to turn the destructive tide of their conquests in some
other direction, and perhaps partly in the hope of endeavouring, if
possible, to convert them to the Christian faith, and inducing them to
direct their arms against the Turks and Saracens, who oppressed the Holy
Land. For this purpose, six monks were selected from the new and severe
orders of predicants and minorites. John de Plano Carpini and Benedict,
travelled through Bohemia and Poland to Kiow in Russia, and thence by the
mouth of the Dnieper to the camp of Korrensa, or Corrensa, a general of the
Mongals; whence, crossing the Don and Wolga or Volga, they came to the
encampment of Bata-khan, called also Baty and Baatu, who sent them to
Kajuk-khan, the emperor of the Mongals, whom they call Cuyne. The other
ambassadors were Asceline, with Friars Alexander, Albert, and Simon de St
Quintin: who went by the south of the Caspian, through Syria, Persia, and
Chorassan, to the court of Baiju-Nojan, or as they call him Bajothnoy: but
of the particulars of this journey very little has been preserved by
Vincentius, so that in fact, the travels here published belong almost
exclusively to Carpini.

The full title given by Hakluyt to this relation is worth preserving as a
literary curiosity, and is as follows:

"The long and wonderful voyage of Friar John de Plano Carpini, sent
ambassador, by Pope Innocent IV. A.D. 1246, to the great Can of Tartacia;
wherein he passed through Bohemia, Polonia, Russia, and so to the city of
Kiow upon Boristhenes, and from thence rode continually post for the space
of sixe moneths through Co